as the Dragon of To-gai. In her journey to free To-gai, she had conquered his city of Avrou Eesa, and had made the man look like a fool in the process, not once, but twice.
Pagonel had no doubt that if Bardoh won the struggle and seized control of Jacintha, his friend in Dhaiyan-Dharielle would soon find herself once more at war - and this time with an enemy far more determined to see her end.
Pagonel owed it to Brynn to learn more about these troubling reports, and to determine if she and her legions should join in the fighting before the issue of Jacintha was decided. She had made something of a pact with Yatol Mado Wadon, after all, forcing him to agree to her keeping Dharyan as her own by using the threat of Bardoh against him. If she had not held the city, then Bardoh would surely have taken it, thereby strengthening his already considerable position among the remaining Behrenese leadership. Better for Yatol Wadon that she kept the city, she had reasoned effectively to the man, and when she had symbolically named the conquered and held city Dharyan-Dharielle, adding her To-gai-ru name to its previous Behrenese name, she had done so with the intent that this city would serve as a bridge between the two peoples.
If in control of Behren, Yatol Bardoh would only cross that bridge with a conquering army at his back.
The Jhesta Tu mystic, wearing his traditional red-and-orange robes, drew quite a few stares as he crossed through the Dahdah Oasis to the west of Jacintha. In the centuries of the reign of the Yatols, few Jhesta Tu walked the lands of Behren, but now Pagonel wore his robes openly so that he could gauge the reaction and thus, the significance of the recent changes.
There were no soldiers in the oasis this day, which surprised the mystic, given that much of the army was in the process of returning from the battle-scarred areas to the west. He had wondered if he would encounter the majority of the Jacintha garrison here, a logical stopping place on the road back to the east.
All that he found were merchants, though, their caravans clustered in various sections about the watering pond.
"A fair day to you," Pagonel greeted one man, a farrier, as he worked on the infected foot of a hobbled horse.
The man looked up at him, his jaw dropping open despite his obvious attempts to remain calm and controlled.
"Ah, be you de man who made de peace?" the farrier answered in his heavily accented voice, a dialect that Pagonel knew to be from the Cosinnida region of southeastern Behren.
"I am a man dedicated to peace, yes," Pagonel answered, dipping a slight bow.
"Den you be in de bad place now!" the farrier replied with a toothy grin and a burst of laughter.
Pagonel looked around at the many caravans, at the quiet, slightly rippling pond. "I see no armies drawing their lines of battle."
"Not yet, but soon," the farrier explained. "That Yatol Bardoh, he be very very angry. We see many soldiers returning to Jacintha, but many more do not. Or when they do, it will be in line with Yatol Bardoh, we hear, to take de place from Yatol Mado Wadon. It be very very bad, I tell you."
Pagonel was more than a bit surprised that the man was being so forthcoming with him. Obviously, Behren was in flux here, an uncertain time where information gained and given would be crucial to the well- being of all. As he stood there with the farrier, others drew closer, listening with more than a passing interest.
"We be going to this new city," the farrier said, and Pagonel noticed a few other merchants nodding.
"Dharyan-Dharielle," the mystic said.
"You know de place, yes?"
"I do, and can promise you all that the woman sitting as governess there will welcome you with open arms," Pagonel told them with complete confidence. "It is the desire of Brynn Dharielle that her city serve as a bridge between the Behrenese and the To-gai-ru, and that it remain an open city, exchanging goods and exchanging ideas. You will find your journey well worth your time, I assure you."
That brought a lot of hopeful nods from the men and women, all of whom were so obviously on edge from the mounting tension within Behren.
"You break de bread with me this night," the farrier said.